The "Stress Test" 19

In February of 2009, regulators began performing "stress tests" on the nation's 19 largest banks in an effort to see how much more money they need to survive a steep economic downturn. Testing the bank's assets against a pessimistic economic scenario, regulators established whether the bank needed an "additional capital buffer". The results were announced on May 7.

The 19 companies, the taxpayer money already invested in them, and the results of the stress tests are shown below. The "capital buffer" is the amount of money regulators decided each institution required to withstand the downturn envisioned under the tests. In all but one case (GMAC), the companies were able to satisfy this requirement by raising capital privately.

 Although they are included in the list because they are technically organized as banks, the companies include one insurance company (MetLife) and a few companies that only recently converted to banks (such as American Express).